Basic Probability/Transcript
Transcript Title text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are playing a board game. Moby rolls the dice and moves his game piece. Then he grabs the dice again. TIM: You can't roll again! You didn't get doubles! Moby beeps. TIM: No, you didn't! You're about to lose! You're stalling! On-screen, a letter appears. Text reads as Tim narrates: Dear Tim and Moby, what's a probability? From, Margaret TIM: A probability is just the chance that some event will happen. Moby beeps questioningly. TIM: Well, like the chance that I’ll roll a 6. Tim rolls a die and gets a 2. TIM: Huh. Anyway, to find the probability of rolling a 6, we need to compare the number of ways to roll a 6 with the number of possible outcomes from rolling a die. On-screen, Tim holds the die in his hand, showing the number 6. TIM: There’s only one 6 on this die, so the number of ways to roll a 6 is 1. On-screen, the number 1 appears above a thick, horizontal line. TIM: The die has six sides, so there are six possible outcomes each time you roll. So the probability of rolling a 6 is 1 in 6. On-screen, the 6 faces of the die appear. The number 6 appears below the thick line. This creates the fraction one-sixth. TIM: That's one way to express a probability: The number of ways a result can happen over the number of possible results. On-screen, a horizontal line appears. Above it, a die is rolled, landing on 6. Text above the line reads, the number of ways a result can happen. Below the line, the 6 faces of the die appear. Text below the line reads, the number of possible results. Moby holds up two dice and beeps questioningly. TIM: Rolling two sixes? That’s a different story. Let’s make a table to figure it out. On-screen, a table appears. Each column in the table is labeled with a die. From left to right, the dice read 1 through 6. Each row in the table is also labeled with a die. From top to bottom, the dice are labeled 1 through 6. TIM: The 6 numbers across the top are the faces of die 1, and the 6 numbers down are the faces of die 2. To find out all the possible combinations that you could roll with a pair of dice, we just fill in the table. On-screen, a pair of dice appears in each square of the table. Each pair of dice corresponds to that square's column and row labels. TIM: This isn’t the most practical way to go about figuring out probabilities, though. So, we can multiply the number of possible outcomes of rolling the first die by the number of possible outcomes of rolling the second die. That’s 6 times 6, or 36 possible combinations. On-screen, the number 36 appears beside the probability chart. TIM: Only one of those combinations is a double 6. On-screen, the square in column 6, row 6 is highlighted. TIM: So the probability of rolling two sixes is 1 out of 36. On-screen, the fraction one-thirty-sixth appears. Moby and Tim appear back at the table, playing their board game. Moby holds up three dice and beeps excitedly. TIM: 3 sixes? Okay, now you're really stalling. Let's get back to the game. Hurry up and roll the dice. You need to get two sixes or I win. Moby rolls a handful of dice onto the table. He picks through the dice to find 2 sixes. He proudly beeps and raises his arms in victory. TIM: I'll have to check the rules...but I'm pretty sure that's cheating. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts